Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, August 11, 2004

Photo: LACY ATKINS

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PFC Paul Hizo, an injured marine, with mother Donna Hanes, at the Marines Memorial Club, Aug.10,2004, in San Francisco. They 're family was assisted by the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund,which was started by Karen Guenther and Liz Quist, designed to Marines� families while they are helping their Marines. LACY ATKINS / The Chronicle less

PFC Paul Hizo, an injured marine, with mother Donna Hanes, at the Marines Memorial Club, Aug.10,2004, in San Francisco. They 're family was assisted by the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund,which was started by ... more

As a nurse at the naval hospital at Camp Pendleton, Karen Guenther saw more than her share of injured, battered Marines come home of late. And when she met with their families, she couldn't help but see their pain and turmoil.

"You had some that are very stoic and don't show emotion, and you have others that, when they see their husband for the first time, you can see it in their face, their body language -- it's devastating," said Guenther, who has been a military nurse for 16 years.

Guenther, who is married to a Marine major, decided she needed to make a difference. Along with some of her fellow military spouses, she started the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund to raise money for Marines' families who needed help while caring for their loved ones. Originally established in Orange County, the nonprofit fund recently went nationwide.

"We realized it wasn't just Marines in Camp Pendleton that needed help. It was Marines all across the country," she said. "We fill in the gaps. When other resources aren't able to help, then we step in."

More than 1,400 Marines have been wounded in action during the Iraq war, according to the Department of Defense. Some have been treated in the field, others flown to Kuwait or to Germany or to the naval hospital in Bethesda, Md.

But regardless of where the Marines are sent, their families "almost immediately drop what they're doing and travel to the hospital," said Master Sgt. William Bonney, family readiness officer for the 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton (San Diego County). "Their only concern is about being at the bedside of their wounded Marine or sailor."

Which is understandable, but not always affordable.

The U.S. military will pick up the tab for two people to visit a severely wounded loved one for a week. But beyond that, and for less severe injuries, the amount of taxpayer money a branch of the service is permitted to pay for family travel, food and lodging declines quickly to little or nothing.

Even a full week of support can seem awfully short when a loved one is recuperating from a grievous injury, said Donna Hanes, a Eureka (Humboldt County) woman whose son, Pfc. Paul Hizo of the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, at Camp Pendleton was badly hurt by a roadside bomb in Ramadi.

"He had shrapnel that ruptured both globes of his eyes, also in his brain, and it caused a brain bubble where they had to do surgery, cutting from ear to ear over the top of the head," she said.

The first thing Hanes did was to pray. Then she flew across country to the Washington, D.C., suburb where her son was being treated.

"He looked good," she said. "You prepare for the worst, and you don't know: Half his head could be gone, half his face look like it was melted."

The Marines were supportive, Hanes said, setting her up at a Fisher House -- a home on military bases made available to families visiting patients -- for a week as her son went through numerous surgeries to clean and repair a gaping hole in his leg and restore sight in one eye.

Her husband, Paul's stepfather, went home after a week, but Hanes stayed, even though she was no longer receiving unemployment insurance -- she was between jobs as a dental hygienist when her son was hurt.

"I stayed there for a solid month," she said. "It was almost an unspoken, like, 'of course, I'm going to be here.' "

At Bethesda, she met other mothers also spending weeks at the hospital, living off credit cards and exchanging tips on support groups. Hanes got by financially for a while with some extra help from the Marines and money borrowed from her sister and her church, she said.

"I wanted her to stay," said Hizo, who is still recovering from his injuries and walks with a cane. "To have someone there to talk to, that was the biggest thing."

Things got dicey when her son left familiar surroundings at Bethesda and was transferred to the Veterans Affairs hospital in Palo Alto, Hanes said. But the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society came through with a hotel room, and the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund gave her a grant to pay for food.

"They kept our head above water," she said. "When it comes right down to it, America doesn't revolve around how smoothly the government works. It revolves around how we as Americans support the people who make our freedom possible."

Hanes' was one of more than two dozen families the fund has helped since May, Guenther said, from the lieutenant whose wife gave birth prematurely while he was still undergoing surgery to save his leg to the lance corporal who needed six pair of new shoes to account for the fact that one of his feet had been partially blown off.

With an all-volunteer staff and limited overhead, Guenther said, she hopes to increase both the number of grants and the speed with which they are given to families.

"An injury affects the whole family," she said. "They arrive, and they're not sure what to expect, and a lot of times they haven't planned out what to do. ... They just want to see their Marine."

Fund specifics

The Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization, and all donations are tax deductible. To contribute, send donations to:

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